GPU Ram, Is More Better?

[Mattyh10]

Looking at 770's and was interested to understand if a card with 2gb of on board ram is worse than one with 4gb? Am i going to notice a difference? What is the extra ram for?

and secondly to that, is the card with the 4gb worth the extra 70 bucks?

Thanks Heaps!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

at 1920 x 1080, 2 GB is fine

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/gtx-770-4gb-vs-2gb-tested/3/

 

[PyjamasCat]

Only if you will use the extra RAM. If you are running games at max settings, on large resolutions (1440p and up or across multiple displays) then you will probably need the extra RAM. Otherwise it is a bit of a waste. If your gaming at 1080p, then you should not need any more than 2GB.

Edit: Looks like there isn't too much difference according to those results JackNayloPE linked.

 

[jessterman21]

No, not currently. But, if you're looking to keep the card for more than 2 years, go for the extra VRAM, it will definitely help with longevity.

It's possible that future games like Battlefield 4 will use up to 3GB of VRAM on Ultra + MSAA @1080p, but nothing currently comes close to utilizing more than 2GB @1080p unless you layer on texture mods.

 

[cklaubur]

Looking at 770's and was interested to understand if a card with 2gb of on board ram is worse than one with 4gb? Am i going to notice a difference? What is the extra ram for?

and secondly to that, is the card with the 4gb worth the extra 70 bucks?

Thanks Heaps!

Memory depends on a couple of things. Higher screen resolutions need more memory since there are more pixels that the GPU has to process. It also depends on the games you are playing. Some games push a lot of textures to the card, and more memory allows for more textures.

As for whether it is worth it, as an AMD fan, I'm not familiar enough with nVidia's cards to be able to answer that. However, if you are going to be gaming at higher resolutions, I'd seriously think about getting the higher memory card.

Casey

*EDIT* Well, everyone else beat me to it.

 

[Mattyh10]

Thanks Everyone for your answers. Im gaming with BF3 and Crys 3 and at 1920 X 1200 so for a safe bet im going to get the 4gb card. Thank you again for your help!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

On the link above, the biggest increase I saw at 4G was in Metro 2033 which took fps from 10.7 w/ 2 GB to 12.8 with 4 GB....next was Lost Planet 2 which at 5760 x 1280 went from 42.6 w/ 2 GB to 44.5 fps with 4 GB .... At 2560 x 1600 they were either the same ....or some went down and some went up by tiny amounts.